Nintendo Announces Affiliate Program To Share Video Ad Revenue

Given the state of Nintendo and its poor sales of their Wii U console, you would think that the company would be doing everything in their power to ensure that fans are kept happy, right? Oddly enough that’s something Nintendo has not been doing, and in fact in the past Nintendo has started to request takedowns of gameplay videos uploaded by fans on YouTube, as well as claiming ad revenue on uploaded videos..

Naturally this angered fans and the community who was just trying to show Nintendo some love. Well it looks like Nintendo has semi-backtracked on their stance and announced that they are preparing an affiliate program in which it will allow video creators to make money from videos they uploaded, with some of the revenue going towards Nintendo as well.

However there is a catch, which is that video creators will have to seek permission from Nintendo before uploading the content. This is different from other videos which typically do not necessarily request permission from the developers/publishers before uploading, although we guess there is an unspoken agreement between most uploaders and developers that they know the content is copyrighted and that they can only use it in certain ways.

According to Nintendo’s statement (via the company’s Twitter account), “In addition, for those who wish to use the material more proactively, we are preparing an affiliate program in which a portion of the advertising profit is given to the creator. Details about this affiliate program will be announced in the future.” What do you guys think? Too little too late for Nintendo who might have tarnished their image last year?